The Quiet Face of Puerto Galera

“You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book(Lady Chatterley, for instance), or you take a trip, or you talk with Richard, and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom(when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this(or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death."”

-Anais Nin, erotic writer, 1903-1977




Auj says...

If there's one thing that came out right with my mom convincing me to take up tourism instead of journalism was my adoration for travel. Every once in a while, everything gets into me like unwanted dust that keeps me from breathing easy. Like a champion boxer who gets all beaten up from all the training and the main fight, I always desire to 'hibernate' and let the wind take me to places where I have yet to set my eyes on. Something that would keep my sanity clear. Something to take me far so I can draw near. The irony of living. It always has a subtle way of saying after you were just convinced that there's no stopping, that it's time to 'take a break'.

It takes us a lot more than just worrying about where to go, what to bring, or how much to spend. It's about with whom we will leave the little boy with. To get away is easy. To stay being away is what's hard. After all, you'd realize that all your individual problems and troubles are nothing compared to raising another being who has to live. Luckily, Pio lovingly trembles at the sound of Mamu's voice.. which reminds me each and every time of when I was his age. The only difference is that Mamu is way tamer now. Lucky boy.

They say that to set goals is really hard as to committing to strive to do them consistently. To commit to work is difficult. To commit to leisure does not come easy too. Surprising as it may seem.However, I am glad that we open ourselves up to that opportunity. To leave for a while the lives we live everyday. And be someone else. More free. More carefree. Be worry-free. More time. Less deadlines. More sense. Be senseless and laugh about it. To breathe.

It is always a great honor to spend time with you alone. It makes me realize how patient life has been on me. It tears down all my fears knowing that there may be no guarantees, but I am not alone because you are with me. I touch the face of contentment. Silence that makes us both hear all the words we couldn't say in very ordinary days.

I have no back up plans even if the worst may come for us. I only have travel plans to take you away with me.

Always.

Dori says...

I’ve been awakened exactly 353 days now. Time surely is on the run, but vivid as a night’s dream do I recall the timid look, the gullible appeal, the mystifying aura. Meeting you for the first time then did not prepare me for what has been the greatest shock I’ve ever had, shock in a good sense that is, that woke me up from my stupor. Life has been treating me kind then, but there was always dubiousness in my everyday, with dullness and boredom slowly killing me. We met and monotony suddenly bid me goodbye, for good.

If hibernating would give us the time for fruitful reflections and to drown ourselves with gratitude and appreciation, it certainly was a plus lying down on kayak while hovering around the serene cove of Galera, the clouds forming images that seemed to convey ethereal messages meant only for us and the wind seamlessly blowing our concerns far away from us, something I would definitely look forward to doing over and over again.

It may have looked simple, but taking turns to row on the kayak gave me dashes of assurance and sprinkles of certainty that whatever wave comes shaking us, it would be a welcome treat as we’ll be there to watch each other’s back.

With you, life has been such a splendid travel with a lot of learning twists and turns. Surprises come in different packages all the time and with Pio as our passenger, I’m sure we’ll never run out of adventures and explorations.

Let’s sail on.